To Catch Fallen Tears
by Wolfie
Summary: I can't really say a lot or else I would ruin the story but it is set after an Imperial attack on a village.


Disclaimer: I don't own this but I think you know that :)  
  
Enjoy.   
  
To catch fallen Tears part1  
  
The view was bleak and desolate and it was hard for anyone to believe that this was once a teeming village. The clean up crew that had arrived to help look for survivors knew here there would not be many. The Imperials had been through, destroyed everything in there wake without even sparing the young. For what? There had been rumour they were harboring a Jedi, unfounded rumours.  
  
Lt. Hills stayed close to the main body of the group. This wasn't her first time to help in the aftermath of a battle nor would it be her last but each time she worked on one it sickened her. She couldn't get used to the smell of death or block it out like many of her colleagues had. It hit too close to home.  
  
Her eyes strayed to one of the partially destroyed houses. For an unknown reason she felt compelled to go over to it, ignoring the calls of her colleagues and the feet running after her.   
  
Pushing the half warped door out of her way, she made her way into the house. The stench of death hit her and swirled round her as if it was trying to pull her into its essence.   
  
She swallowed back the urge to get sick and wandered purposely into the main structure of the house. Normally she would have classed this as desolate but something called to her, something caused her to look closer.  
  
A shuffling noise straight ahead of her alerted her that she was not alone. Resting her hand on the holster of her blaster she walked towards it.  
  
She was unprepared for the sight in front of her; a small girl cradling an infant sat in the rubble. On first appearances she appeared to be in a trance, speaking without saying anything but as Lt. Hills neared her she caught the faint whisper of a lullaby.  
'Daddy will bring the food for the tea,  
Mummy will make you pretty,  
And I shall catch your fallen tears  
To make you feel loved'  
  
The small girl kept repeating this over and over, rocking the infant as she did so. Lt Hills blinked back the rapidly forming tears, it was quite obvious from the smell of decay and the infant's rigid unmoving body that she was dead.  
  
Kneeling down carefully beside the girl, Lt Hills asked her softly "Can I hold her?"  
The girl's dead eyes looked up at her, barely seeing her.  
"I promised I would mind her." The girls voice came out in a hoarse whisper, hardly audible.  
  
Gently prising the child's fingers away from the baby, she took her into her own grasp.  
"I'm just going to see can I help her."  
  
The small girl nodded as if not understanding what was really happening. However her emotionless face watched Lt. Hills every move while she held the infant.  
The icy infant in her arms, Hills looked round for something to cover her with. The infant was tiny, under malnourished and had to have been dead for a few days. Guilt racked through her mind, perhaps if they had got here earlier, they could have saved her.   
  
'Lt Hills what did you think you're doing? There is clearly no one al..." His words trailed off as he saw the small girls hugging her knees, rocking back and forth.  
  
Eyes flicking from the baby to the girl, he offered Hills a blanket for the dead infant. Wrapping the infant carefully in it, she then passed it back to him. It would get an unnamed grave like all the rest. No one knew whom these people war, yet they were still dragged into this senseless war.  
  
The girl didn't struggle as Lt. Hills picked her up and carried her outside. She lay meekly in her arms as she caught up with the rest of the group.  
  
It was unsettling, that the girl didn't whimper or cry or even protest at her sister been taken away from her but as Lt. Hills carried her back to the waiting ship she heard the young child say.  
  
'And I shall catch your fallen tears  
To make you feel loved'  
  
Part 2  
  
Three day, three days that was all that was left. Then they could leave this area of chaos and move on to another. This had effected everyone more than they had expected it too. The town was as it never existed yet they all could still feel the ghosts of the past walking the ruins.  
  
The sole survivor was still in shock. Her thin body shook with soundless sobs, she rarely spoke anymore and still in the clothes they had found her in. When one of the medics tried to clean her up, she had obstinately refused to wear the new clothes they had given her. Screaming when they approached. It was a horrific sound, to Lt Hills it was anyway. Every time she heard it her own past came back and haunted her.  
  
She knew why the girl refused to wear any clothes but her own. It was because they were all she had left, nothing more, nothing less. She didn't even have her own name, shock had rendered her with selective amnesia.   
  
The Medics said her memory might come back but the chances of it were slim. What had happened to her was traumatising and her mind had dealt with it. Buried it deep and locking it away. The infants name had been Zavia. The girl had told her that, it was all she could remember for the moment.  
  
She had hardly ever cried out loud, the thought had crossed Lt. Hills mind that she didn't have the energy left to cry. Still it scared her, in truth she should be crying but the young girl had emotionally made herself distant from everything. Until, she cried for Zavia.  
  
Lt. Hills had been bringing her to the infants grave when she suddenly saw the young child sink to the ground and dig fruitlessly at the earth.  
  
Watching her for several moments, she had finally asked. "What are you doing?"  
  
The tear streaked face looked up at her with pain filled eyes. "My tears..." She'd sobbed. "I have to save them, they are for Zavia, I want them for her!" The girls ending words ended on a screech as she wept openly.  
  
Lt. Hills took her small frame into her arms and rocked her back and forth, she didn't know what else to do. " It will be okay, there will be other tears." Even to her the words sounded heartless.   
  
"I can't cry anymore." The child had whispered back.  
  
Those words still haunted the lieutenant. True to her word the child hadn't cried after that, hadn't spoke a lot either. During the entire trip she hardly uttered anything apart from the lullaby and the screams.  
  
  
Watching grimly as white, coated people took the small child away. They had called her Mercy, it seemed fitting.   
  
Shaking herself, trying to pull herself back from her frightened mind, Lt Hills too felt like that small child. Scared, alone, distant.   
She was afraid if they didn't win soon, there would be more like Mercy, more she would have to face and she couldn't catch all their fallen tears.   
  
  
  
  
  
The End.  
  
Please take the time to review and tell me what you think. Construcktive critism and comments are appreciated. :)  
  
  
  
  



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